Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog (also known as Sonic SatAM) is an American-Italian animated television series based on the video game series of the same name. It was story edited by Len Janson and produced by DiC Productions L.P., Sega of America, Inc., and the Italian studio Reteitalia S.p.A. It is the second of DiC's Sonic cartoons, following Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. It features a more dramatic and dark story (which the use of dark themes were since suspended after the cancellation of [[The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3|the second Super Mario Bros. cartoon]] in 1991, but this show is more edgier than Mario 3), depicting Sonic as a member of a band of freedom fighters battling to overthrow Doctor Robotnik. The program aired for two seasons on ABC from September 18, 1993 to December 3, 1994. Premise The series takes place on Mobius, a planet mostly populated by anthropomorphic animals. The Kingdom of Acorn, based within the city of Mobotropolis, was at war with an unseen enemy. The King recruited a human scientist, Julian, to build war machines to end the war with a victory. However, during peacetime, Julian and his nephew Snively launched a coup d'etat against the kingdom. The King is banished to another dimension, the Void, and the citizens are captured and transformed into mindless robots, through a machine called the Roboticizer. Julian renames himself as Dr. Robotnik, now the steel-hearted dictator of Mobius. Mobotropolis is renamed Robotropolis, a polluted, factorial cityscape. Robotnik finds himself opposed by a small collective group called the Freedom Fighters, who operate out of the secluded woodland village Knothole. They are led by Sonic the Hedgehog and Princess Sally Acorn, the King's sole heir. Other members include Sonic's best friend Miles "Tails" Prower, technical expert Rotor the Walrus, French-accented coyote Antoine D'Coolette, half-roboticized Bunnie Rabbot, and Dulcy the Dragon. They act as an insurgency against Robotnik's regime. Sonic uses the Power Rings to gain a temporary boost in power. Both the rings and the Roboticizer were designed by Sonic's uncle Chuck, one of the victims of the machine. Early on in the series, Sonic uses a Power Ring to restore Uncle Chuck's mind in his mechanical body. Chuck decides to act as a spy for the Freedom Fighters, operating from within the city. He is eventually exposed by Robotnik in the second season, and flees to Knothole. Sally searches for her father throughout the series. He is found alive within the Void, shared with a sorcerer, Naugus, who was also imprisoned within the dimension by Robotnik. Naugus attempts to escape the Void, but both he and the King discover their bodies turn to crystal whilst back on Mobius, and are forced to return to their prison. The heroes gain other allies, including Ari the Ram, and Lupe, leader of the elusive wolf pack. In the series' sole two-part episode, "Blast to the Past", Sonic and Sally use the Time Stones to travel back in time, in an attempt to thwart Robotnik's planned takeover. They fail, but manage to get their younger selves to the safety of Knothole, with help from Sally's nanny Rosemary Woodchuck. In the series finale, Robotnik builds the Doomsday Project to wipe out his enemies. The Freedom Fighters launch a full scale assault against Robotnik, Sonic and Sally destroying the Doomsday Project with the power of the Deep Power Stones. Robotnik vanishes, and the Freedom Fighters declare victory, with Sonic and Sally kissing. In a final scene, Snively becomes the main antagonist, accompanied by an unseen ally with red eyes. Ben Hurst, one of the series' writers, confirmed the figure was Naugus. Episodes List Coming Soon! Broadcast and distribution Initial run The Saturday morning series differs from the weekly Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (which ABC originally planned to air before planning SatAM), which premiered the same month. While Adventures is lighthearted and comical (as being more aimed at children), Sonic the Hedgehog featured a comparatively complex plot and dramatic atmosphere. It explored unusual story concepts for animation, including losing loved ones to war. At ABC's request, the second season included episodes devoted to humor, while darker elements were reduced. Other changes include Princess Sally donning a jacket for season two, and Rotor receiving a new design. Further changes were made for [[Sonic Underground|the third Sonic cartoon]]. ABC also ended up, in some weeks, airing back-to-back episodes of this show during the 1st season, while in Season 2, each time slot for the show was single-airings only. Syndication After the program's initial run, it appeared on the USA Network's Action Extreme Team from June 1997 to January 1998. The series aired in Canada on the CTV Network, with a bonus summer run between June 10 and September 2, 1995. ABC did not replicate this, replacing Sonic with reruns of Free Willy, implying the network didn't want anything to do with the show anymore. Sonic the Hedgehog has not been rerun on broadcast or cable television in Canada since its cancellation on CTV, but was present on the Shomi video-on-demand platform until its November 30, 2016, closure. From 1994 to 1996, it had a complete run on the UK television on ITV and Channel 4, In December 1994, the first season was broadcast in the Republic of Ireland on RTÉ Two. On September 2, 2016, reruns of the series began airing on Starz. To date, this is the only Sonic cartoon that never airs on any Disney-related channels due to the diverse subplots. Home Media In 2007, Shout! Factory released four disc boxset includes the entire 26 episodes from the series, and are presented in its original, uncut broadcast presentation. Bonus features include: storyboard version of the unreleased intro, concept art, storyboard-to-screen comparisons, deleted/extended scenes, a printable prototype script of the series pilot, "Heads or Tails" (which features the curve-less, ponytail wearing version of Princess Sally), and interviews with Jaleel White and writer Ben Hurst. The individual cases and the DVDs themselves also feature fan art submitted to Shout! Factory during the box set's development phase. The set features cover art by Ken Penders, and was released by Shout! Factory and Vivendi Visual Entertainment. The Region 2 version was distributred by Delta Music Group PLC in the UK. After DHX bought rights to the DIC Sonic series in 2012, the Region 1 set went out-of-print, and due to legal issues involving the lawsuit against Penders around 2011-2013, this show is suspended from further DVD reissues. The original out-of-print releases of this show are available to purchase on Amazon and eBay (with an expansive price) and is available to purchase on iTunes. Comic adaptation Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comic book was initially based on the Saturday morning cartoon. From its earliest issues, the book shared the characters and story premise established within it. However, the comic differed in that it featured humorous plots modeled after the weekday show, as well as Princess Sally looked slightly different from the show with a sporty ponytail and no curves. After writer Ken Penders had the opportunity to view the Saturday morning program, the comic gradually became adventure-driven. The comic series shifted focus again after ABC cancelled Sonic the Hedgehog, developing into a relationship-based superhero story, and following a reboot, Archie's Sonic was primarily inspired by the video game series. Nevertheless, the characters and locales from the Saturday morning cartoon remained prominent until the comic's cancellation in July 2017. When IDW Publishing took over the Sonic series in 2018, the new comic book series return the Sega Sonic characters, completely replacing the characters from the SatAM series due to Ken Penders lawsuit. Trivia *Sega of Japan was known to make frustrating and seemingly arbitrary demands. For example, like many American cartoons, the characters were all originally designed with four fingers instead of five. The designs were approved by Sega of America but were rejected by Sega of Japan, who were reportedly afraid that it would be associated with the Yakuza's tendency to "chop off" fingers. This resulted in DiC needing to reanimate a number of already completed scenes to include the additional fingers. *This is Princess Sally Acorn's official appearance, Sonic's love interest. Sally wouldn't appear in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog as it being different canon of the series, as well as being lighthearted, which explains Sonic having base-splitting love interest in Adventures, such as Breezie the robotic hedgehog for instance. **This is Sally's only major role for the series. *The only DiC Sonic TV series to feature the rings which were items from the game series that plays a significant role in this show. *This is the only Sonic cartoon that features depicted ongoing teen intimacy involving the bonding between Sonic and Sally, with some episodes include kissing scenes. This concept was cut out from Sonic Underground as the staff felt it was more targeted for the older audiences. Similar concept like this was used earlier on The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, but is more infrequent, which was seized from their next series because of the new rule for children's television was enacted after late 1990. Those rules were somewhat ignored for this show. *This is the only Sonic cartoon that features female characters that wear little or no clothing throughout the series. Princess Sally, with exposed feminine curves, is undressed throughout. This is censored in Sonic Underground as every female characters (with new characters replacing the ones from this show) are urged to be designed with clothing as the staff felt the unclothed females were often depicted to be sexualized. **Sally returns in Sonic Christmas Blast with an extremely limited role. **In 2013, four years prior to the cancellation of the Archie-Sonic comics, Sally, along with all other female characters involved, are consequently given clothes in the comics to avoid further female controversy in children's media. *Robotnik's roboticised pet bird Cluck, only appeared in 9 episodes of Season 1. While he was absent and never mentioned in Season 2. *This is the first Sonic cartoon that features Uncle Chuck. The second being Sonic Underground, except he is given a minor role for one episode and with a different roboticized design. Reception Sonic the Hedgehog initially ranked #9 in its time slot with a 5.2 rating, an estimated 4.8 million viewers. Mark Bozon of IGN criticized the show as dated, considering it "so bad, it's good." Writing for DVD Talk, Todd Douglass Jr. remarked that Sonic didn't stand the test of time. Overall, he considered it to be of low quality, although he found the stories "Ultra Sonic" and "Blast to the Past" to be "the crème of the crop." Luke Owen of Flickering Myth felt Sonic aged better than is often supposed, praising its diverse concept, although he considered Antoine to be "one of the worst characters committed to a cartoon series." GamesRadar listed the show as one of "the worst things to happen to Sonic." It criticized its plot and characters as "unwanted". Escapist journalist Bob Chipman credited the series with providing a viably menacing take on Doctor Robotnik, and an engaging narrative. Bob Mackey of USgamer wrote that the cartoon's writing didn't live up to its intriguing premise. In particular, he argued that the Antoine character perpetrated negative French stereotypes. As of July 2019, this series has the score of 6.9/10 on IMDb. It was known to be popularized by preteens and teens rather than children for the use of darker elements, ongoing sci-fi action, and the mature adolescent themes in a Saturday morning cartoon of its time. Potential revival A group of fans is working to produce a revival based on the unused plans for a season 3 and hopefully try to partner with SEGA to make it official as well try to partner with Netflix to distribute it on their streaming platform. Category:Sonic the Hedgehog